


Afterlife

by RiTheBiGuy_RileyTMR



Category: The Good Doctor (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-13 22:42:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29658435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiTheBiGuy_RileyTMR/pseuds/RiTheBiGuy_RileyTMR
Summary: She turned to look at the groups of people who had gathered around to watch as the police set up tape to keep them back. Her eyes widened as she recognised one of the people standing there, slightly apart from the rest of the crowd.It was him, the man who had died a year earlier, the man who used to be her mentor and her best friend, the man who she loved.Neil Melendez.
Relationships: Claire Browne/Neil Melendez, Lea Dilallo/Shaun Murphy, Morgan Reznick/Alex Park
Comments: 9
Kudos: 18





	1. Claire part 1

Claire was numb that day, she walked around her apartment on autopilot, she drove to the hospital on autopilot, she did her rounds on autopilot. Nothing was okay that day and she didn’t want to be around anybody, she just wanted to go home and crawl into her bed, wrapping herself in a blanket and listening to the music that she knew he enjoyed. She was headed into the residents lounge when she was paged to Lim’s office. She knocked on the door before entering.

“You wanted to see me,” she stated as she walked into the room. Audrey looked up at her with a sad smile.

“Yeah, I wanted to check that you were okay,” the older woman said.

“I’m fine,” Claire shot back quickly.

“Claire, it’s alright not to be,” Audrey assured her.

“I’m fine,” she repeated and Audrey sighed.

“It’s been a year today since the earthquake, I’m sure you are anything but fine.”

“I am fine,” she said through gritted teeth, but Audrey could see the tears forming in her eyes.

“You can sit in here and talk for a bit if you want,” the chief of surgery told her.

“I’d rather just get back to work,” Claire replied, trying to keep her voice steady.

“Alright,” Audrey said, “but I am here if you want to talk,” Claire nodded and went to leave when Audrey spoke again, “you loved him, I did too, maybe in different ways but I still know how difficult today is for you,” Claire stood in the doorway for a second before walking away.

Everything was getting to her that afternoon, every family member that insisted they knew more about a patients condition than any of the board certified surgeons in the room, every teasing remark between Morgan and Alex, every question Shaun was asking about his current life problem. It was all getting too much, she felt like the walls were closing in and when she looked into the empty office that used to belong to their late mentor she could feel the tears threatening to escape from her eyes. She would look into that office everyday, hoping that one day he’d be sat there and the past year would have just been a bad dream. That never happened though. The only time she’d seen anybody sitting at that desk was when they’d gotten a new attending, he didn’t last long, only a couple of months before leaving, he didn’t like Shaun and he made that obvious, he then didn’t like the way Claire treated him because of this and also partly because she didn’t want a replacement of her former boss, she just wanted him. Park also held a grudge towards the man when he started talking down to Morgan, treating her like she was dirt every time she came into the residents lounge, just because she was no longer a surgeon. She smiled slightly as she thought back to the day that he finally snapped, shouting at them before telling them he couldn’t do it anymore and walking out of the door. They got into trouble with Lim and Andrews but it was worth it. She shook her head, shaking the thoughts from her head as she heard Morgan and Alex debating something that she was sure was stupid and irrelevant to their current case. She stood up and headed into the empty office of the man that she loved, she looked at the empty chair where he used to sit before taking a deep breath and heading out to the balcony. She looked out at the darkening sky, thinking back to all the times she’d caught him out here or when he’d catch her, both of them deep in thought about a case or a life problem, trying to figure out solutions in the light of the moon or the heat from the sun. A tear fell down her face as she thought about the memories that she had of him. She could feel the residents watching her through the window but she didn’t care, they knew what day it was, they’d been constantly trying to make sure she was okay all day, eventually giving up when she snapped at them to leave her alone. She couldn’t wait for the day to finish, couldn’t wait until the next day where the normal ache that she felt everyday would be back instead of this crippling one that hit her today. 

Eventually, she found herself packing up her belongings ready to leave for the day, making plans to go home and eat an entire tub of ice cream. She got into her car, leaving the hospital car park and heading in the direction of her apartment. She had been trying to hold it together all day, but when she drove past a restaurant that they would frequent she found the tears that she had been holding back began to fall down her face. She let them. She was tired of trying to be strong. She drove through the green light at an intersection not too far from her apartment when headlights getting closer to her registered out of the corner of her eye, she looked over to the direction they were coming from as a large truck hit into the side of her car, pushing her across the road and into a nearby building. She felt her head hit her steering wheel before snapping back against the headrest on her seat, everything went dark after that.

When she opened her eyes again she could see blue flashing lights surrounding her, she sat up looking around, her car was stuck in between a building and the truck that had hit her, they could see the man who was driving was unconscious in the front seat. She turned to look at the groups of people who had gathered around to watch as the police set up tape to keep them back. Her eyes widened as she recognised one of the people standing there, slightly apart from the rest of the crowd.

It was him, the man who had died a year earlier, the man who used to be her mentor and her best friend, the man who she loved.

Neil Melendez.


	2. Claire part 2

Claire wasn’t entirely sure how she got out of her car, she just knew that she was, she walked through the broken glass that was scattered across the floor, straight past the police officers, fire fighters and paramedics who had shown up. She walked past the crowd of people who were staring at the accident, heading for Neil. He smiled at her as she got closer.

“Hey,” he said. His voice was just as she remembered and she smiled when she heard it.

“Hey,” she replied. They looked at each other for a few seconds before he spoke again.

“How are you feeling?” He asked, “that was a pretty bad crash.”

“Great,” she answered before realising that actually she was feeling great, she wasn’t in any pain at all and that confused her, she should be in terrible pain after having her car squashed between a truck and a wall. Neil took a step closer to her when he saw her face twist from a smile into a look of confusion. He put a hand on her shoulder and she jumped. She shouldn’t be able to feel him, he was dead, nothing made any sense to her in this moment, until suddenly it did. She looked up at him with wide eyes and he smiled at her sadly as she pieced it together. She turned around to look at her car, it was completely ruined and sitting in the drivers seat, eyes still open on her tear stained face, was the body of Claire Browne.

“It’s difficult to wrap your head around it at first,” Neil said, standing next to her, “I wasn’t sure what to expect when I realised I was dying, but I knew I was going to die, you didn’t get that luxury so this must be hard for you.”

“I’m dead,” she whispered.

“Yes,” he replied. She took at step back in shock and he was sure she was going to fall over so her put an arm around her to hold her steady, “it’s not too bad,” he spoke in her ear as he leant his forehead against the side of her head, both relishing in the fact that they could now hold each other, “everyone who you’ve ever loved that has died is there and you can still keep an eye on your loved ones who are still alive.”

“Where?” She asked.

“The afterlife,” he replied.

The watched as Claire’s car was cut into and her body was pulled from it. She was placed on a stretcher and a sheet was placed over her.

“Let’s go,” Neil said, taking her hand, “there’s nothing else to see here,” she was about to ask what he meant when they were suddenly in what could only be described as a large expanse of whiteness. There were no walls, no floors, no ceilings, as far as she could see there was only white nothingness. Soon people started to come into sight, slowly appearing from nothing. She was struggling to understand what was going on but when she felt Neil’s hand in hers she knew she was safe, “It’s a lot to take in but you’ll get used to it soon enough,” Neil told her. She looked at him and he smiled at her, she was about to say something when someone spoke behind her.

“Claire!” She turned around and almost cried when she saw Kayla standing there.

“Kay!” She rushed over to the other woman and wrapped her arms around her.

“I didn’t get a greeting like that,” Neil joked, coming over to the two women.

“Give her a break, she didn’t realise she was dead then,” Kayla said and Neil chuckled.

“I see you two have become friends,” Claire said looking at the two.

“Well, when you’re dead you kinda have all the time in the world to get to know people,” Neil replied, “all the time in the world to keep falling for the same person over and over again,” he smiled at her and Kayla squealed.

“He’s such a romantic, I could tell you two would be good together when I saw you both at the hospital. Then I watched as you got closer and fell in love and I just wanted to bang your heads together,” Kayla said.

“But you tried setting me up with Dash,” Claire commented.

“I know, I wanted you to both be happy and I wasn’t sure whether you two would actually try to get together or not,” Kayla replied, “but you two are here now and have an eternity to be together without any of the stresses that being alive caused,” Claire and Neil smiled at each other before Neil stepped forward and cupped Claire’s face, he leant forward and softly kissed her. They broke apart a little while later and wrapped their arms around each other, getting lost in the feel of the other, when they heard another voice nearby.

“Hi baby,” they broke apart and Claire turned to see the face of her mother.

“Mom,” she gasped, unsure of whether she wanted to hug her or avoid her.

“I am so sorry,” the older woman said, tears in her eyes, “I disappointed you, did something stupid and I hurt you. I haven’t forgiven myself since that day, as I watched you walk over to my car, I hated myself and I wish I could have gone back in time and changed it, I would never have touched that bottle if I’d known-“

“If you’d known that you’d die that night, that you’d leave me alone after I spent my whole life trying to look after you?” Claire asked anger in her voice, her mom nodded slowly.

“I am so sorry baby,” tears fell down Breeze’s face and Claire softened.

“So am I,” Claire said as she hugged her mother, “I never should have kept that champagne, I should have thrown it out with the rest of the alcohol.”

“No, I was weak and I gave in too easily,” Breeze cried.

“No, you were sick,” Claire replied, also crying now.

The four of them all caught up before Neil told her that there was more he needed to show her. She said goodbye to Breeze and Kayla before they faded away. She looked at Neil as that happened and he smiled at her in amusement.

“Relax, they’re alright, just went somewhere else,” he told her.

“Where?” She asked.

“Wherever they wanted to go,” he replied simply before grabbing her hand, “think of a place that you’d love to be right now,” he told her.

“I’m with you,” she replied, “I’m happy where I am,” Neil grinned.

“I’m happy too, but trust me you’ll love this and I’ll be with you the whole time,” he said. Claire thought for a second before coming up with a place. Soon enough walls and furniture were appearing around them, Neil grinned when he saw where they were, “and you say I’m the romantic,” he looked around, “the restaurant where I almost walked out on our friendship,” he commented. 

“I was so relieved when you came back, that you wanted to fight for our friendship,” Claire said.

“I’m glad I did, I didn’t realise then that I’d fall in love with you though, now I wish I had and that we could have had a chance to be together before I died,” he admitted.

“We have the chance now,” she replied. Neil looked at her and smiled before kissing her.

“Got a lot to make up for,” he smirked when they pulled apart, “but first, there’s more to show you,” he held her hand and suddenly they were back in the whiteness, he looked out at what appeared to be nothing but soon enough there were what she would describe as TV screens, except they weren’t, the edges of each screen was slightly faded and as she looked she saw that they showed mostly their friends at the hospital and a few other people she didn’t know. Some of the screens were small and scattered around the edges of the cluster of scenes. Most of them were bigger, these ones had the people from the hospital and a couple of other people, there was one larger one that had a woman sat at a table with a child’s puzzle as she pieced it together, “these are the people I care about,” Neil explained, “the little ones are people I know well but I don’t consider as important, the bigger ones are the people I love and miss,” she watched as she saw Audrey, Morgan, Alex, Shaun and Marcus standing in the ER, obviously waiting for some ambulances to come in on one of the screens. She saw Aaron and Debbie in the clinic, having lunch, she smiled at what she was missing out on, “those two,” he pointed to a couple sitting on a couch looking at a photo album, “are my parents, all they’ve done today is cried and looked at old photos of me. And that one,” he pointed to the largest screen, “is my sister Gabi, she’s not too sure what’s happened with me, all she knows is that I haven’t been to visit her in a long time,” he looked down sadly, “you don’t realise how many people are affected by your death until you’re actually dead,” Claire looked kinda sad as she realised none of her friends seemed sad right now, Neil noticed the look on her face, “they don’t know that you’re gone yet,” he told her, she looked up at him. 

“So we have to watch as they find out?” She asked.

“We don’t have to,” he replied. She thought for a second.

“No, I want to,” she said, Neil nodded in understanding.

“We can actually be there if you want,” he told her, she nodded and squeezed his hand. They looked around as the ER formed around them. Two ambulances pulled up and they watched their friends hurry out to them.

“45 year old male, had a heart attack at the wheel, crashed his truck into the side of a young woman’s car,” the EMT explained. Marcus and Alex wheeled him into the room and worked on getting him stable.

“This one needs to go straight to the morgue,” another EMT said, wheeling in a stretcher with a sheet over it, “the victims name is a Dr Claire Browne,” he read off of the drivers license they’d found in her purse. The room went quiet, the only sound was the beeping of monitors, “did you know her?” He asked. Nobody said anything, nobody even moved, until Audrey lifted her shaking hands to pull the sheet off of the face of the person under it. She let out a horrible noises as her hands covered her mouth and she stepped back. Morgan and Shaun looked down at their friend, tears falling down their faces.

“No!” Shaun suddenly said, “No. No. No.” he repeated, his hands coming up to his head as he pulled on his hair slightly. Morgan stood frozen, looking down at Claire’s body, she slowly lifted her hand and brushed the hair out of the smaller woman’s face, revealing a large cut on her forehead.

“By the looks of it, she died instantly,” the EMT told them, Morgan nodded slightly before rushing to the nurses station and throwing up in the bin. Marcus and Alex stabilised their patient and headed over to see for themselves. Tears fell down Alex’s face and he swiped at them as he turned to look at Shaun who was now pacing the room, hitting his head with his palms. Park went over to try to calm the young surgeon as Marcus lifted the sheet back over Claire’s face. Claire was rolled towards the morgue and Marcus went over to Lim, holding her as she cried onto his shoulder.

Neil and Claire looked around at their friends. Shaun had calmed down and surprisingly let Alex hold him as he cried. Morgan was sat next to the nurses station, eyes read from crying. Marcus and Audrey were stood talking to each other, Marcus checking that the younger woman was okay. They watched as Aaron, Debbie and Lea rushed into the room. Lea hugged Shaun who pulled away from Park when she came in, Debbie headed over to where Morgan was sitting and sat next to her, wrapping her in a hug. Aaron walked towards Marcus and Audrey, asking what had happened.

“Can we go now?” Claire asked Neil, tears falling down her face. 

“Of course,” he replied and almost immediately they were back in front of the screens. Claire breathed deeply for a little while before turning and wrapping her arms around him, “it’s hard, watching everyone else hurting and not being able to do anything to stop it,” he said, before kissing her head. 

“Yeah,” she agreed. Neil held her for a while until they were disrupted. 

“Claire Browne?” a young boy asked. They turned to face him and saw that he was standing with a teenage girl. 

“Yeah,” she said. 

“I’m Steve Murphy, Shaun’s brother,” he said, holding out his hand for her to shake, “this is Maddie Glassman, Dr Glassmans daughter,” she shook the teenagers hand, “I just wanted to thank you for helping my brother, you were really kind to him and he liked you.” 

“He’s an incredible person,” she replied. Steve smiled. 

“He is and I’m glad he had a group of people that he could rely on.”

“I’m glad I could rely on him as well,” Claire told him.

“Ive been sharing my screens with Steve, Maddie and your mother,” Neil told her, “Steve only wanted to see Shaun, Maddie only had Aaron and Jessica and your mom only wanted to see you,” he explained, Claire looked at the screens and saw that the people he was referring to were now on bigger screens, “if you want you can join us and add whoever you want.”

“There’s only one other person that I can think of,” she replied, she thought for a moment and soon a screen showed up and she watched Dash as he made himself dinner.

“Here,” Neil said as a couple of couches materialised, “we can sit down and keep an eye on them together,” Claire and Neil sat down on one couch as Steve and Maddie sat on the other. They were soon joined by Breeze and Kayla who made another couch appear, as they sat down Claire looked around at the people she was sat with. 

Maybe being dead wouldn’t be so bad after all.


	3. Aaron

“I’m sorry Dr Glassman, but the cancer is back and it appears to be worse than before,” Aaron closed his eyes as he heard these words. He wasn’t sure what was said after this, he just remembered his appointment finishing and he walked out. He felt numb, it wasn’t like the first time he was diagnosed, he accepted he was going to die fairly quickly but now, almost 5 years after his first diagnosis he was struggling. He thought he’d beaten the cancer for good, but now it was back, they gave him an estimate of 6 months, there was so much he still wanted to do but he smiled fondly at everything he’d already done. 

“How did your appointment go?” Debbie asked him as he walked into the clinic. He didn’t answer at first, still processing it himself, “Aaron?” She looked at him, concern in her eyes.

“It’s back,” he said simply, “they’ve given me 6 months,” Debbie threw her arms around him and he held her as she sobbed.

He decided to leave it a couple of weeks before he told Shaun, remembering what had happened the last time he had to break the news to him. He knocked on his office door, the younger surgeon had his own office now that he was an attending, he had his own group of residents as well which he shared with Alex, who’s office was the other side of their residents lounge. 

“Come in,” he heard Shaun say. He stepped into the room and headed over to the large desk, “Hello Dr Glassman.”

“Hi Shaun,” he replied.

“I had to do a liver transplant today,” he said, showing Aaron the scans that he was sorting through, “it looks like it went well.”

“That’s great Shaun,” Aaron replied before sighing, “I need to talk to you about something,” Shaun looked at him as he sat down in a chair across from him, “I had an appointment a couple of weeks ago after I was getting bad migraines, I had scans and tests done, turns out the cancer is back,” Shaun had a blank expression on his face as he sat there in silence.

“It will be okay,” he said eventually.

“No it won’t Shaun, I have had every test done, all the imaging you can think of, biopsies, everything, it’s inoperable,” he sighed, “I have just under 6 months, do you understand this? I’m dying and there isn’t anything we can do this time.”

“I understand,” Shaun replied, he stood up and walked around his desk, he placed a hand on Aaron’s shoulder in an attempt to comfort him, Aaron smiled and patted his hand gently, “I’m glad you are my mentor and my friend, I will miss you.”

“Me too Shaun,” Aaron said with tears in his eyes before he stood up and left the room.

6 months passed too quickly for him and soon he found himself hooked up to various monitors in a hospital room at St Bonaventures.

“How are you feeling?” Marcus asked, walking into the room and noticing Debbie and Shaun curled up in chairs asleep.

“Like I’m dying,” Aaron replied.

“I can get you some morphine if you’d like?”

“It’s alright, I’m not in pain, just thought I’d come to terms with it all, I guess I haven’t yet,” he said, looking over at the sleeping bodies in his room.

“I’ll make sure to keep an eye on him,” Marcus said, looking over at Shaun.

“Thank you,” Aaron’s replied, “Debbie’s strong and will get through this, but I was all that Shaun’s had for a lot of his life, he’s been handling this better than I thought so far but,” he sighed, “I don’t know how it’s going to be when I’m actually gone.”

“He has people here who are watching out for him,” Audrey said as she walked into the room, “you don’t need to worry,” she held Aaron’s hand and gave it a light squeeze.

“I know, you two, Alex, Morgan and even Lea, will all look after him, he’s lucky to have you all,” Aaron told them.

“He was lucky to have had you,” Marcus replied, “we’ll leave you to get some sleep.” They left the room and Aaron looked up at the ceiling, he knew he only had a matter of days left, he was glad he was surrounded by the people that he loved.

“Hey,” Jessica said as she got to the hospital the next morning.

“Hey,” Aaron replied weakly, “glad you could make it to the big event.”

“Even on your death bed, you’re still as sarcastic as ever,” Jessica smiled but there were tears in her eyes, she sat down with Debbie and Shaun, talking to them quietly as he drifted back to sleep.

When he woke up he knew the end was near, the others did too, he didn’t have the energy to talk anymore, he lifted his hand slightly and Debbie grabbed it, Jessica went around and took his other hand while Shaun moved closer to his bed. He turned his head and saw Marcus, Audrey, Alex and Morgan standing outside surrounded by many other members of staff, all their to pay their respects to him as he was dying. A small tear fell down his face as he thought of everything he was leaving behind and he shut his eyes for the last time.

“Hi daddy,” he heard, he was now standing in the room, Shaun, Debbie and Jess were behind him, around his body on the bed but he wasn’t focussed on them, he was only interested in the teenage girl standing in the corner of the room.

“Maddie!” He called, rushing over to hug her.

“I’ve missed you,” she said.

“I’ve missed you too,” he took her face in his hands, “you’re just as I remember you.”

“And you’re a lot older than I remembered,” she replied, he chuckled. They heard the faint beep of the heart rate monitor, he turned, facing his loved ones as they watched him die. Marcus entered the room and turned off the monitor.

“Time of de-“ he started but Shaun cut him off.

“Can I call it?” He asked, Marcus nodded to him.

“Time of death, 18:24,” he said. Aaron looked at him proudly, amazed at the man that he had become, he’d taught him everything he could and Shaun had even taught him things too, he knew the young man would be just fine without him.

“Let’s go daddy,” Maddie said, holding her hand out to him. Aaron took her hand and he was slightly confused when he found himself standing in what he could only explain as nothingness, he looked around, it stretched out as far as he could see, “don’t worry, it gets less confusing after a while,” his daughter told him. He was about to say something when he spotted three people suddenly appear near them.

“Neil?” He questioned, “Claire?” His eyes widened at the last person, “Steve?”

“Hi Aaron,” Neil said, stepping towards him.

“Hello Dr Glassman,” Claire smiled at him.

“We’re dead Claire, I think you can call me Aaron now,” he joked, still unsure as to where he was and what was happening.

“Thank you,” Steve said to him, Aaron nodded, the young boy didn’t have to say anything more, he knew what he was thanking him for.

“It was my pleasure,” he replied.

“So let’s show you the lay of the land,” Maddie said, grabbing his hand, Claire grabbed his other one before taking Neil’s who was holding on to Steve. He was surprised when they were suddenly in an OR room.

“You can go anywhere you want,” Neil told him, “Claire and I like visiting here, we can do surgery’s on patients who won’t die, we don’t need anyone to hand us things, we just picture them and they’re in our hands, it’s amazing,” they were then standing in a school bus.

“You can go to places that mean a lot to you,” Steve said, “you can replay memories that you have,” they watched as Steve and a young Shaun appeared, Steve gave Shaun a box and he looked through it, holding up a plastic scalpel. Soon they were in a restaurant.

“You can go out to eat, you don’t need to but you can, you picture any food and it’s there in front of you,” Claire told him.

“It’s great if you want to take someone on a date,” Neil added, winking at Claire.

“I’m glad you two are finally together, just a shame it took you both dying for that to happen,” Aaron said.

“Well, we have an eternity to make up for it,” Neil replied. They found themselves at what looked like a small party.

“You can also make yourself younger, you can’t make yourself older than when you died but you can go backwards,” Maddie said, as she spoke she got smaller and younger, her clothes transforming from the jeans and T-shirt that she was wearing, to a yellow dress with a corsage on it. Aaron smiled and soon he looked a lot younger and was wearing a tux. He picked up his daughter and they danced to the music that filled the room. When he looked over to where the other three were standing he noticed that they were gone, “don’t worry, they’ll be looking at the screens,” Maddie explained.

“Screens?” He asked. She smiled at him and they were suddenly in the white place again. He saw the others looking at some screens, they were joined by Claire’s mom and a woman that he’d never seen before. They walked over to them and he saw scenes of various people. 

“Everyone who any of us love and care for that are still alive are right here,” Claire told him. He looked up, smiling at his wife who was comforting Jessica in one of the hospitals hallways. He looked at another screen where he saw Shaun sitting with Lea on a carousel that he recognised as the one he’d taken Shaun to after his first diagnosis. He then looked over at another one and laughed.

“I knew there was something going on between those two,” they all looked at the screen which had Morgan and Alex sitting on Morgan’s couch, Alex had an arm around her as she cried, kissing her head before saying something in her ear.

“Yeah, they moved in together after Alex’s divorce,” Neil said.

“Yeah, I remember that,” Aaron replied.

“Well after a couple of years of obvious flirting and us wanting to bang their heads together they finally got together,” Claire smiled, “it’s sweet, they deserve each other.”

“They do,” Aaron agreed. He felt comfort in knowing that all of his friends and family were going to be okay without him.


End file.
